Turning 40, Bernard Lagat Still Wants to Be World Class

In 2014, Bernard Lagat earned the silver medal at 3000 meters at the World Indoor Championships, kicked to another outdoor USATF 5000-meter title, and had a best 5000-meter time of 13:06.68. He thought he broke the long-standing U.S. 5K road record, only to discover that the course was short by a miniscule amount.

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On Friday, Lagat will turn 40. Track fans expect him to eviscerate the masters world record books, including Eamonn Coghlan’s indoor mile mark of 3:58:15 and Anthony Whiteman’s outdoor one of 3:58.79. James Li, Lagat’s coach since the late 1990s, and Lagat estimate Lagat could run 3:55.

But Lagat is focused on open, not masters competition. His main mission for 2015 is to be part of the United States 5000-meter trio at the World Championships in Beijing.

"Forty is not a barrier,” says Lagat, the only American male distance runner on the track ever to be poised to compete at such a lofty level in his fifth decade. He marvels at the UK’s Jo Pavey, who won European Championships gold this past summer in the 10,000. “Oh my goodness. She’s running like she’s 20-something,” Lagat says.

Still, Runner’s World Newswire had to bring the subject back to his impending assault on masters records. In addition to the mile, there’s the world 3000-meter indoor best of 8:01.44 by by Vyacheslav Shavunin of Russia, a time Lagat labels “not crazy fast,” as well he should, since he ran 7:38.51 in 2014.

He could put the masters marks out of reach for many years to come. “That will be good. I’ll raise the bar,” he says. “But somebody will do it again in the future. That is the trend now. People are not saying, ‘I’m 35 or 36 and I should retire.’ They are looking at like, ‘If I’m still strong and I’m still disciplined and I have that focus, I should keep going.’”

Concessions to AgeThere are, nevertheless, some physiological changes for Lagat to cope with. He hasn’t competed in a mile or 1500-meter race on the track since 2012. He runs 3000 meters and the two mile indoors, and the 5000 outdoors.

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“We’re operating under the same basic concept and ideas,” says Li, who also coaches at the University of Arizona. But stamina is now a more reliable tool than speed. “He’s better and stronger at doing longer things,” with weekly runs of 13 miles, explains Li. "But he couldn’t easily be doing those 1:20 600s [interval repeats] anymore. And if you ask him he’d say, ‘Man, I can’t keep with those young bucks anymore in the 1500 when they go out really fast. I definitely have noticed from time to time he really would struggle with guys like Lawi [Lalang] and Stephen Sambu,” two recent University of Arizona stars coached by Li.

Still, Lagat says “I’m still hungry" as a runner. Li, who coached Lagat to three NCAA titles at Washington State in 1998, finds that attitude remarkable.

“Life gets to you, right?," Li says. "You have so much stuff, so much demand, and you get to the point where there are things that are more important. We all know Kip is such a great family man and he’s so committed to his kids.”

Indeed, it was difficult for Lagat to fit in the time to speak with Newswire as his 40th birthday approached. The first block of time he squeezed in was a cell phone call outdoors, just prior to his 8-year-old son Miika’s soccer game, a chat that ended abruptly as the game commenced. Later in the week, he’d have duty for hours as a playground monitor, for one class of kids after another at Miika's school (Lagat and wife Gladys also have a daughter Gianna, who is 6).

What helps is that Lagat has always been a once-a-day trainer, almost always in the afternoon. Mornings are for family. "We make breakfast for the kids and drive them to school," he says. "That is the program for every morning. I’m awake anyway and I’m not going to go rush out for a run.”

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Compared with a decade ago, Lagat pays more attention to self-preservation measures off the track. He drinks a lot of water and consumes fruit smoothies. He’s dedicated about taking in calories soon after a workout to speed recovery. (He’s partial to chocolate gluten-free protein shakes.)

Success Through ContinuityKenyan-born American citizen Lagat, owner of the U.S. outdoor records for 1500, 3000, and 5000 meters and the indoor mile best of 3:49.89 (set in 2005), is about five months older than 2014 Boston Marathon champion Meb Keflezighi, his fellow 2004 Athens Olympic silver medalist (Lagat in the 1500, Keflezighi in the marathon).

Continuity is key for both men. They have the same coaches they had as Pac-10 athletes in the late 1990s. Since 1999, Lagat has had the same agent, Australian James Templeton, whom he thinks of as part of the family. (Keflezighi’s agent, his brother Merhawi, is part of the family.)

On top of that, Lagat has had the same shoe sponsor, Nike, since 2002. As Li points out, he’s never had to “worry about a job.”

“This is a blessing,” Lagat says of the consistent backing he’s had throughout his running career. “It’s something that I wish a lot of athletes that work so hard like I do would get. I would love for everyone to get those opportunities."

2015 PlansLagat will open his 2015 season with a 4K race at Great Edinburgh Cross Country in Scotland on January 10. He’ll be in a two mile at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix in England on February 21; a shot at the masters 3000 record, en route, could come there.

No one is willing to confirm it yet, but it’s widely assumed that Lagat will be in the mile at the Millrose Games at New York’s Armory Track & Field Center on February 14, and that’s when Coghlan’s masters record, that 3:58.15, could come tumbling down.

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He has immense admiration and fondness for Coghlan, who was congratulatory when Lagat achieved his eighth Wanamaker Mile win to better Coghlan's tally of seven.

“I should ask for his permission first,” laughs Lagat. “I think he’s going to be happy for me, but it might be like, ‘Man, what are you trying to do? I thought you’d want to leave a few for me.’”

For his birthday on Friday, Lagat plans to golf with friends in the morning and have a party at night. Agent Templeton is flying in from Australia to attend.

Before his outdoor track season gets underway, Lagat hopes to get back on March 29 to the Carlsbad 5000, where this year he apparently broke Marc Davis’ 18-year-old American 5K road record, but later learned the course was inches short. He’ll have an altitude training stint at Flagstaff, and he’ll campaign for one more appearance at the World Championships, where he swept the 1500 and 5000 in 2007 and was a silver medalist in the 5000 as recently as 2011.

As for Lagat making it to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics at age 41, Li says, "Oh, I don’t know about that. I wouldn’t rule it out, but we don’t talk too terribly much about it.”

“I don’t want to go too far into it," Lagat says about long-range planning." I still have 2015. And then we can come back and do the same routine and training for 2016. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself.”

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